ty's mosques were "vast in size and remarkably beautiful." Baghdad also featured numerous colleges, hospitals, "infirmaries for both sexes, and lunatic asylums," Davis continued.
             Every household in Baghdad had a plentiful supply of water that was provided by "numerous aqueducts which intersected the town." The city was spotless, due to daily sweeping and watering, and "no refuse was allowed to remain within the walls," Davis asserts.
             Baghdad was the center of a vast trading network during The Golden Age: pepper and spices, precious stones, porcelain and fine cloths came from China; fur products arrived from northern countries, author Phyllis Corzine explains (Corzine 44), and "coral, ivory and textiles" were sent from Baghdad as trade for those items that arrived.
             Baghdad was not just looked on as the center of the Abbasid and Islamic culture, but as the center of the universe, "a city that rivaled ancient Rome and Athens," Corzine describes. Another Abbasid city that was in the grand, splendid, opulent style of Baghdad during The Golden Age of Islam was Cordoba, in Spain, part of the Islamic Empire. Cordoba, with a population of one million (Baghdad had around 2 million people), was a city where people prospered and were highly cultured. Gardens overflowed with flowers, and at night "the city was lit with streetlights."
             Over 60,000 mansions were built for the wealthy and high-ranking officials, and over 200,000 large homes were established for "ordinary citizens." There were 900 public baths, 27 schools that were free to citizens, and the Cordoba library held more than 400,000 books.
             All this luxury and advanced culture in Spain contrasted sharply with the rest of Europe, in particular northern Europe, where people were still living in the Dark Ages, according to Corzine's book. In Paris during The Golden Age of Islam "people wer...